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• Major Operas
• High Romantic
• Opera

‘Mephistopheles’ Composed: 1866–67 Premiered: 1867, Venice Libretto by the composer after Goethe’s Faust Prologue Mefistofele wagers with God that he can win Faust’s soul. Act I Crowds celebrate Easter Sunday in Frankfurt. The aged Faust is bored and watches a mysterious friar, who follows him back to his study. When Faust opens his bible the friar reveals himself as ...

• Personalities
• High Romantic
• Opera

subject that fascinated numerous writers, artists and composers during the nineteenth century. In the event Boito chose both subjects, but Faust came first, when he composed his Mefistofele (‘Mephistopheles’, 1868). Sadly, the opera failed at La Scala, Milan. Boito became depressed and turned instead to a much greater talent, his ability to write powerful, ...

• Personalities
• Classical
• Composer
• Late Romantic
• Librettist

(Ar-i’-go Bo-e’-to) 1842–1918 Italian composer and librettist Boito furnished the librettos for two of Verdi’s greatest Shakespearean masterpieces, Otello (1884–86) and Falstaff (1893). The premiere of his own operatic masterpiece Mefistofele, at La Scala, Milan (1868), was greeted with whistles due to the work’s extreme length (over five hours) and Germanic influences. As a result Boito for a while ...

• Personalities
• Classical
• Modern Era
• Singer

1890–1957 Italian tenor Gigli made his debut in Italy in 1914, and sang Faust in Boito’s Mefistofele at Bologna and Naples the following year. He made his Metropolitan Opera debut in Mefistofele in 1920. The operas in which he appeared at the ‘Met’, where he sang for 12 seasons, included La bohème, Ponchielli’s La gioconda and Meyerbeer’s L’Africaine. ...